


a stitch away from making it

by mercurybard



Category: Push (2009)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-11-26
Updated: 2010-11-26
Packaged: 2017-10-13 09:28:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/135753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mercurybard/pseuds/mercurybard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>and a scar away from falling apart</p>
            </blockquote>





	a stitch away from making it

**Author's Note:**

> Push belongs to people who ain't me. Title from Fall Out Boy's "The (After) Life of the Party".

Cassie's arm shakes as she holds the gun. It's too big to be anything but awkward in her small hands. There's a good chance that the kick from it will make any shot she tries to take go wild.

She's exhausted too. Hasn't slept in...over two days, she thinks. Not since the plane ride to Hong Kong from Tokyo. While the flight attendants had given their spiel about seat belts and flotation devices, Cassie had been frantically scanning the seats for any sign of Division thugs. By the time they were taking off, she'd convinced herself that it was all clear and curled up in her seat, resting her cheek on her boney knees.

No wonder her hand is shaking.

She's seen Nick in her visions, lying on the massage table, his head turned away from her. No way to tell if he was dead or alive. There'd been so much blood leaking from his ears when he'd Moved her out of the way in the fish market. She plucked a lotus from a vase, just in case he didn't make it. It's appropriate to bring an offering for the dead.

This Stitch--Cassie doesn't like her from the word 'go'. Doesn't like the cruel hand she uses to yank Nick's head up. The way she talks about Cassie's mother. Then she sinks her power and hands into the torn and ruptured muscles of Nick's back, and there's a dark glitter in her eyes under the frown of concentration. The world shakes a little, or maybe that's just the future shifting inside Cassie's head.

***

It's frightening how quickly they get comfortable with each other. Him nagging her about biting her nails; her telling him about how much the other Watcher--the Chinese girl who is just a few years older than Cassie--bothers her. Lollipop girl claims to have Seen how Cassie dies. She's good enough that Cassie believes her, and it makes Cassie want to scream that her own vision sucks in comparison. There's a tiger lurking in the darkness on the edges of her Sight, and no matter how much she probes at it, there's never anything more definite than a tiger. Sometimes, the tiger is alive--she can feel its breath against her skin as it looms over her, saliva dripping from teeth longer than her finger. Other times, it's just an emblem, the last thing she glimpses as blackness floods her vision. She hates the damn beast.

But that doesn't stop her from drawing it over and over again in her notebook.

The look on Nick's face when he puts Kira in that cab and tells her good-bye...

Cassie calls after him, follows him a ways down the street. There's so much she wants to tell him, but she can't find the words for any of it. It makes less sense than one of her visions, this jumble of emotions knotted behind her breastbone. They've been on the run together for...does this make three days? Except for that drunken catnap curled up in the chair in the hotel room, she hasn't slept at all. Hasn't changed clothes either, her shirt is sticking to her back, and she's pretty sure she can smell herself.

She can't think of what to say, so she lets him go. The plan is for him to find the man who wiped Kira's memories and ditch his recollection of the last few hours. All the memories of the careful but haphazard--it is Nick after all--planning. But there's no way of knowing how good this guy's powers are and how precise the wipe will be. Nick might not even remember having met her when he's done. His mind might be reduced to mush. It's a risk he's willing to take.

Two days ago, he wasn't even willing to listen to her.

***

Her red envelope contains a laundry list of things she has to accomplish in a very short amount of time. She sits on the foot of his bed, gun in either hand, and tries to catch her breath. It doesn't come. She still has to hide these weapons. There's still so much that can go wrong.

Her eyes fall on the tiny tiles under the soles of her boots, and the vision hits hard, making her grab for her temples. Nick, writhing on the floor. The Stitch, crouching over him in spite of her towering heels, taking a casual drag from her cigarette. The vision is from Nick's perspective on the floor. It gives her an idea, a place to hide the guns for Nick.

She draws him a sign too, because it's Nick and he's a little dense.


End file.
